Nchan is an open-source project providing a fast, flexible, and scalable pub/sub messaging system for modern web architectures. It allows real-time communication between web applications and supports various protocols like HTTP, WebSockets, SSE, and long-polling.
Nchan was introduced by the nginx team in 2014.
The first version of Nchan was released on GitHub in June 2014.
The project has grown in popularity and is now used by many high-traffic websites and web applications.
The latest stable release of Nchan is version 1.2.8, released in June 2020.
Pusher is a commercial real-time messaging service that provides APIs for building scalable user-facing applications.
Socket.IO is a popular open-source real-time communication engine that provides both server-side and client-side APIs for building real-time applications.
Firebase is a comprehensive cloud-based mobile and web application development platform that provides real-time messaging, database, and authentication services.
The Nchan core is the main component of the Nchan project that provides the pub/sub messaging system for web applications. It is written in C and can be used as a module for the nginx web server.
The Nchan Websocket Publisher is a JavaScript library that provides a simple API for publishers to send real-time messages via WebSockets. It is compatible with all modern browsers.
The Nchan Subscriber is a JavaScript library that provides a simple API for subscribers to receive real-time messages via various protocols like HTTP, WebSockets, SSE, and long-polling. It is compatible with all modern browsers.
Nchan is an open-source project that provides a fast, flexible, and scalable pub/sub messaging system for modern web architectures. It allows real-time communication between web applications and supports various protocols like HTTP, WebSockets, SSE, and long-polling.
Nchan itself is written in C and can be used as a module for the nginx web server. However, Nchan also provides JavaScript libraries for publishers and subscribers that are compatible with all modern browsers.
There are many alternatives to Nchan, including Pusher, Socket.IO, Firebase, and more. Each of these services provides real-time messaging capabilities for building modern web applications.
Yes, Nchan is open-source and completely free to use. It is released under the MIT license.
Nchan is used by many high-traffic websites, including Reddit, The Washington Post, and The New York Times. However, since Nchan is a backend technology, it is not always visible to end-users.